Well, you made it! (or you almost made it!) Congratulations!

My guess is that there were moments (days, weeks) during the last year or so, while you served in the “mission field,” when you wondered if you would make it, right? And, undoubtedly, you sometimes wondered if the day would ever come when you’d be going home! But here you are.

Returning home was something you looked forward to with great anticipation while serving overseas. On those dismal days when you felt like a failure... on those days when you felt totally misunderstood... on those days when you wanted to scream because the surrounding culture was so strange...on those days when you were so homesick you could die, on those days when.... Well, I think you get the point. On those days, the thought of going home kept you going. I know a number of volunteers who began the calendar countdown during one of those times–“just 127 days ‘til I can go home!”

Now you are home, but I can almost guarantee that whether your time overseas was mostly good or mostly bad, or somewhere in between, when it comes right down to it, returning home hasn’t been as easy as you thought it would be. Returning home is a major transition, and no one enjoys transitions. Things at home are somewhat different, and that worries you a bit. You intuitively know that you are somewhat different, and that likely worries you a lot. You intuitively know that no matter how much you’ve loved or hated the place you’ve been, there are things you’ll miss–things no one “back home” seems to understand. The whole situation is a bit bizarre and inexplicable, even to yourself.

So here you are, at your re-entry, not sure just how to cope.

Interestingly, most organizations which send large numbers of people into cross-cultural situations have learned that for the majority of their people, returning home (“repatriation culture shock” it’s called) is usually more challenging than the initial “culture shock” people experience when they go out. This phenomenon is not limited to any one country or ethnic group. The following percentages indicate the number of people returning to their home countries who experienced major cultural adaptation upon their return: Japan--80%, Finland--71%, Netherlands--64%, and U.S.A.--60%. The length of time this process takes and the intensity with which you experience it, will probably be directly proportional to how deeply involved you were with the local culture–the more involved, the harder the transition. But the adaptation process is inevitable.

For whatever it’s worth, the good news is that if you experience some bumps in the road as you return home, you’re in good company, and since misery loves company....